d jake tapper. you're going to hear bill clinton, i donyo-yo ma, and illegitimac lebron james. "cuomo primetime" starts now. hey, i'm chris cuomo. around cooper, the man i call coop, he's home doing daddy duty. so welcome to primetime. we're back, says the president. even without a vaccine. while still touting the effort to get one at warp speed. now, tonight we're going to talk about what this is all about, this warp speed vaccine pitch and take us back to the reality of where we really are. it has never been about reopen or not reopen. that's a false choice. the only choice is reopen, it's how.

can you do it smart? through science? testing? no? without tracing measures? without a real plan? is that reopening or is that reinviting disaster? we don't even know what's right right now. except to wear masks and keep our distance. and of course, how many of us are ignoring that? also tonight, we just acquired a load of new video in the arbery murder case. key context to advance our understanding of the mind frame of the suspects. no, i don't care where our arbery was. i don't care how many times he was there whether it was someone else. it was irrelevant. this isn't about arbery. it's about understanding why these men felt they needed to do what they did. the mother of ahmaud is here to share her thoughts. so what do you say? it's friday night, but let's get after it.

did you hear what came from the cdc. ominous projection tonight. at least 100,000 deaths in america by the end of this month. we're at more than 87,000 deaths now, and the president is cheering this number like, yeah, we're doing great. >> i just want to make something clear. it's very important. vaccine or no vaccine, we're back. other things have never had a vaccine and they go away. so i don't want people to think that this is all dependent on vaccine. >> like the cacophonous horns of truth behind him, don't listen, he refuses to tell you the truth. this will not disappear. do we have to have a vaccine? i don't know. let's listen to the scientists about that. are we open anyway without one? yeah. is that something to brag about? no. we had to reopen without it, but it was never about a vaccine.

look, this whole thing today was a play, bringing out the secretary of defense. we'll have one by january. great. it would be great. what does the media do? january, january. can they do it? let's get experts lined up to say no, no, you're getting played. you're all getting played. don't you see? i know you do at home. but you start listening to the media because we won't shut up. who cares about a vaccine right now? we're reopening right now without a plan, without the right testing and tracing, people none of the wanting to wear masks because they can't get clear guidelines. we don't know thousand to do things. the federal government is quiet on too much. the states, the states. states need help. vaccine, end of the year. end of the year? we're talking about summer, right? that's the state of play, summertime. what are we going to do? how do we do this the right way? crickets. you haven't heard trump saying anything about that.

school's not open, we're not reopen. if we don't have a vaccine, we still open. great, we all want to do that. that's the easiest decision to make. how about making some hard decisions? let's talk about the reality with chief white house correspondent jim acosta. i think we were getting played today with this vaccine talk. it was such a beautiful distraction from the reality of all these states opening beaches and people running like crazy with no real direction. >> to some extent, chris, you're right. absolutely no question about it. the president wants people to see an optimistic view of all of this when we're heading towards 100,000 deaths by june 1st according to the cdc. but let me fill you in on something i heard from the administration. it's important we lay this out. this official said there is a way to get to hundreds of millions of doses by the end of the year, and it's by engaging what they call at risk vaccine development, which means by late this summer, july or august,

they're going to begin to churn out millions of doses of a vaccine that may not be completely proven to be effective against the coronavirus. it is a financial risk for the federal government, not a human risk according to this official, but they hope if by december or january, by the time that time rolls around that they have a vaccine that works, they've already ramped up that production to get to that hundreds of millions of doses level. the risk is for the federal government, chris, is whether this vaccine doesn't work, if the vaccine doesn't work, then they have to throw all those away to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. but that is the kind of at-risk production that's going to be engaged in according to the senior administration official i just spoke with. setting all of that aside, absolutely the president was trying to have it both ways today. he was trying to tout this operation warp speed project that's been launched by the federal government while at the same time saying he's reopening this country, he's pushing to reopen whether there's a vaccine

or not. >> first of all, your reporting is excellent. i've been hearing the same types of things for weeks. so to get it from a senior official is really gold in terms of the journalism of it. thank you for that. yeah, it's a risk of money. they say they'll follow the testing phases, so it's not about risking health but if they're wrong about the vaccine, we're out of pocket for that much. but to this other point, warp speed, as we both know, only exists like in "star trek," okay? it's not a real standard thing to begin with. but what is the real standard is the speed of deception. so if we say they can't really get this vaccine, the science is questionable, now we're the negative nancys. look at that acosta always trying to kill our optimism look at the democrats always trying to find a reason for people to stay at home, jim, when we're all so desperate to reopen. the president has beautifully defined a false choice. reopen or not, jim? that's where my head is. that's never the question. it's always been how. and how little of you heard from

this white house about their plan to motivate how to reopen safely for states? >> i mean, we've got no plan, we have no details on that. you're absolutely right. people want to go to the beach and enjoy memorial day weekend. we just don't live in that world anymore. and so one thing we should point out what the president has been saying over the last couple of days is he is hell bent on reopening no matter what. yesterday he said testing may be overrated. today he was saying, well, a vaccine is not necessary in terms of reopening the country. he's laying out these benchmarks that essentially, whatever the hell happens, he wants to reopen this country. he was talking about reopening schools in the fall and keeping teachers above the age of 60 or 70 from going back to schools or universities. how does that work? i remember teachers back in my day who were that age, or at least they seemed that way at the time the president is not

dealing with the reality of the situation. we've seen that since the beginning. apart from the president there are scientists on the case. if this operation warp speed can get us to a vaccine by the end of the year, it doesn't matter what the president says at that point. this society, this country, the rest of the world will be in a better place. >> everybody wants to reopen, so why wouldn't you play the politics that way if you can? credit to the president, democrats dummied up on this. they allowed themselves to be the party of "no," and they're not framing questions the right way and they may pay a political price for it. but you're right about teachers. we had the catholic school experience. 65-year-old nun had faster hands than bruce lee. jim acosta -- >> watch out for that ruler, exactly. >> believe me, i know all too well. have a good weekend, my brother. where does the country stand on reopening? well, come on, man. how many people do you know who don't want to reopen?

it's about can i do it safely, right? i don't want to this to be worse. who doesn't want to reopen? it's a false choice. so let's take a look at what reopening is taking shape as around this country. our thanks to nick watt notsds nationwide snapshot. >> reporter: across louisiana, dinner and a movie is now an option once more, but you're your server might be masked. >> we really have kind of crushed the curve. because it's -- it's due to our residents who stayed home. >> reporter: 48 states now have an opening plan under way today. half of new york state begins its long road back. >> all i can do is get back at work and hope they'll come. >> reporter: beaches in new york, new jersey, and connecticut will be open in time for memorial day, but new york's pause order extended another two weeks for millions in the state, including everyone in new york city unless numbers improve. >> we need a massive citywide

apparatus, testing, tracing. >> reporter: meanwhile in michigan, resistance goes on. the blue governor said they're red protesters. >> these are not just citizens unhappy about having to stay at home. this is a political rally essentially. >> reporter: that might actually delay reopening. >> it's the congregating of big groups of people who are not wearing masks, who aren't staying six feet apart that will perpetuate the community spread. >> reporter: april's retail numbers are out, a historic low down 16.4%. clothing sales down 90%. >> most of the 50 states are going back at work in soto work >> miami looks to hire up to 1,000 contact trailblazers. texas to set a record, most

recorded covid deaths in 24 hours. gyms and offices still scheduled to reopen monday. in north carolina, big box stores can reopen, but church gatherings still limited to just ten people. >> i'm not enforcing it. >> reporter: others sheriff's say the same. meanwhile in sin city, you can buy a mask from a vending machine at the airport as cesar's gets ready to reopen. >> in the new world there will only be three chairs and nobody will be able to be within six feet. >> reporter: the news from l.a., the "usns mercy" hospital ship just left after seven weeks supporting the covid-19 fight. the curve here has flattened. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. >> our tharngsz to nick watt for that. where does the "mercy" go? that's part of how. the casino thinks how, why? because they're intelligent and very savvy. what do you hear from the

sheriff? i don't know if eight enforce it. we hear that from lawmakers all over the country, because they don't want to do their job? no, they're our heroes. i can't enforce these things so you have to figure out how to do the most important thing, and we know what that is. what will give you the most confidence to go back to work, to let your kids go to school? what's the situation where we're going? how sick are people there? how has it gone there? that's testing, that's tracing. you don't hear a peep about it except very general platitudes, why? because they don't want to take it on because it gets in the way of the easy self we're pro-reopen, but the question is how. and on that point, we got a very telling moment from the trump administration today. you had the secretary of defense clear. this was a designed statement. he wasn't caught off guard or ad-libbing, the primary object is about what they want to sell to you as a win.

listen. >> winning matters, and we will deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale to treat the american people and our partners abroad. we will deliver, we will win this fight, and mr. president, thank you, again, for all that you've done. we will get the job done. >> but again, that undertone, no, that's not what it was. i don't know what it was. it doesn't matter. what i'm saying is of course we want a vaccine by january. it was perfect bait because it has nothing to do with now. it's not going to change your confidence level now. but it does bhak my brothers and sisters in the media talk about it right now. instead of fact that people are reopening there's no real plan and the federal government doesn't really seem to show leadership. i don't blame the secretary of defense for what he said. when you question it, you seem like you're anti-optimism. where do you get january from? hater. what do you want people to do? just stay home? that's the alternative, right?

that's the way the democrats have been framed on this. they want you to stay home. and then you have people painting it darkly. they're about control and taking your freedom. this is crazy talk. but in a vacuum of a better message, you'll get painted this way. trump knows it, that's why he doesn't have the mask on. let's bring in dr. asheeshja. you're not a politician, but give me a better explanation. trump doesn't have the mask on when everybody else does because he's all about reopen without rules. mask, bad. mask, control. mask, people like asheesh ja trying to take your freedom and suffocate you literally with a mask, not me. white blood cell would he not do it? his explanation made no sense. isn't it a play? >> yes, chris.

thanks for having me on. look, masks are freedom. wear the mask, you get to go back to work. have testing? you get to go back to work. wait until the case loads are declining enough, which a lot of states are heading that way, just wait a little longer and you can go back to work. it won't be like six months ago, but we can get a lot of it back. i'm puzzled why masks and testing are seen as anti-freedom. i see them as pro-freedom, getting our lives back. >> you know why? too smart. that's your problem. you have to think politics, not science or even prudent policy. it's summertime, brother. i want to call you up and have an adult beverage with you and you're telling me wait a little longer. i want to fish and get my family out of the house. my kids hate me. i want to get them out of the house. you're saying wait a little bit longer. trump's saying now, forget the vaccine and the mask, forget

about testing. i don't think we need it. reopen, baby, that's strength. now, you would fail me if i gave you that answer on a test. but in politics, who do you think wins? my answer to you is this, doc, look around the country. who's winning? >> yeah. so look, i'm going to gently disagree with you. >> don't be gentle. go ahead. >> respectfully. look, 80% of americans in all the pollings basically say, yeah, we want to get back, go in again, but not without more testing or security and safety. so i don't know how the politics of this comes. i know how the science is, and the science pretty clear. more testing, mask-wearing, social distance, open up safely, and we can have a pretty good summer. it won't be the same as every other summer, but we can get back and even get through the fall if we keep ramping up testing and keeping these things

in place. i'm all in on that, but i want the data to drive by decision. >> that's the way to put it. i'm going to make a politician out of you yet. i know it goes against you having all this high character, but i'll beat that out of you over time because if that's the message from the community that is protective here, we all want to get back. let's get back now, but we have to do it in stages and steps. it'll be a better messaging situation than the one right now because right now it's reopen or not, and that's not only a false choice, it's not even where the science is telling us to go. but it is the state of play in politics. so thank you for stepping out of your comfort zone. it's always a pleasure to have you, doctor. the best for you and the family for the weekend. >> thanks, chris. you too. >> all right. now, we're going to take a break, okay? when we come back, economics, that's what's driving this. yeah, a lot of it is wants. a lot of it is needs. real pain, real fear, what people see as a form of dying, okay?

we have to talk about it next. every financial plan needs a cfp® professional -- confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. they're all possible with a cfp® professional. find yours at letsmakeaplan.org.

yeah, i'm done aftere with a cthis meeting.nal. we're just going over how people who switch to progressive can save hundreds. hey mara! - yeah jamie's the guy running it. - mara, you're not on mute. i once had to fake jury duty

to get out of talking about his yogurt preferences. mara, you know you're not on mute, right? oh, there's a mute button? yeah, that's flo! the one who looks like she'd smile while she sleeps. flo: i always smile. mara: that's why i said that. fechildren's claritin allergy relief. and relief from symptoms caused by over two hundred outdoor and indoor allergens. because to a kid, a grassy hill is irresistabale. children's claritin. feel the clarity and live claritin clear. get a free footlong. just buy one and get one free. when you order in the app with contactless payment for quick and easy pick-up. that's buy one, get one free. for a limited time only.

that's buy one, get one free. you're first. first to respond. first to put others' lives before your own. and in an emergency, you need a network that puts you first. that connects you to technology to each other and to other agencies. built with and for first responders. firstnet. the only officially authorized wireless network for first responders. because putting you first is our job. . breaking news. i don't like it. after 118 years, the department store icon jcpenney announced it's filing for bankruptcy, sign of the times. they're not the only ones suffering. early numbers show retail sales dropped more than 16% from last month. that's the largest drop ever recorded since the government

started tracking these numbers. we know why. the question is what to do about. katherine, haven't seen you in a minute. hope the family is well. thank you for joining me. >> of course, yeah. no complaints so far all things considered. >> i'm not going to let you slap me around with the false choice. you know it's about how. on the economic side, how real is the pain when people are talking about their own personal economy at home and what it means to business in general? >> look, the numbers are just mind-boggling at this point. whether you're looking at the tens of millions of people who are officially out of work, the additional people who have had their hours cut or given up looking for work so they're not even counted in those tallies, whether we're talking about the retail numbers, the pain is just incredibly vast. that's part of the reason why i would argue that nobody wants this indefinite shutdown,

obviously. we want to get the economy humming again. so that people can get back to work and put food on their tables. >> you may be one of the people who agrees with me. i know the polls say 80% of people let's not open if it's not safe. what do you want from the news, they say i want hard news, and then they watch anything that's tantalizing. i think the reality out there is the reason that the idea of reopen no matter what is so resonate is despite the polls people are so worried about their economic future. and they think we'll get over this pandemic one way or another, but i may never get my lived back. what do you think of that? >> i think that's a very real concern. we don't know how many of these firms are going out of business permanently. most workers right now who are laid off say they're on temporary layoff, but we just don't know that's the case. of course just because the

government might reopen officially the economy for business as usual doesn't mean we will actually have business as usual. if you look at the data leading up to those government-enforced shutdowns, economic activity was already dropping whether you're looking at consumer spending, work hours, people didn't wait to be told by politicians stay home, don't shop, don't go to work. they were doing it anyway. so if people still don't feel safe even though the governor is saying, hey, go out and shop again, they're not going to shop again. and that's why you really need to get the pandemic obviously under control and to reassure people that they can have some sense of normalcy even if it's not going to be a snap back to what it was before. >> even if it's the love gov from new york? it gets complicated, the analysis. here's something you talked about before the pandemic with me. what reopening will look like in terms of the tools the government has, a big tax cut

made it hard to use tax cuts that way. having the fed keep the rate so low now almost paying people to borrow money. we don't have the tools to spur the economy. what does reopening look like in terms of the ability to incentivize and regrow the company absent huge waves of consumer demand? >> look, at its heart this economic crisis is a public health crisis. so until you assure people it will be safe to go out, that there are some sort of metrics in place to test people, to track people, to make sure that, you know, there's mask-wearing or social distancing if they go to the restaurant or they go to their local target or what have you, they're not going to be willing to go out again. nobody is suggesting that everybody should stay home or we should return to business as usual as it was before. it's more a matter of finding that middle ground so that people feel safe so that you do

have, again, the health problems under control because you're not going to fix the economy until you fix the pandemic, or at least bring it down from the heights of what we saw before. >> last quick thing. let's say you reopen with no rules. looking at how consumer demand was before all this, let's say you get a 20% bump of people with pentup demand and they come out and hit it. how long do you think it takes to get an economy back that is showing strong growth again? >> well, if you look at the forecasts from wall street economists, for example, most of them are predicting that later this year we will see some recovery, but it will still be years before we get back to the level of economic growth -- rather, the size of the economy, economic activity we had before until we get back to the number of jobs that we had before. remember, after the great recession, it took something like seven years until we returned to the level of employment that we had before that crisis. so it could be a very, very long

haul until we get to full recovery this time around, even if things start to show some gradual improvement later that we're. >> i heard you draw that analogy early on that the great recession, totally different situation, that was forced on us, we didn't force it on the economy like here but talks to took a decade to get 20 something million jobs put back in. here we have almost getting close to 35 million jobs out already. how long can we get back? how much faster can we do it? katherine rampell, great to see you. best to the family. thank you for making us a little bit smarter tonight. >> thank you. >> all right every night we're learning not just about covid, but this other focus, at least on this show. the georgia killing. look, i think it's a metaphor for so much that's going on in our criminal justice system and our larger culture. we've been trying to build a case here of understanding not about a prosecution, about the facts, why did this happen? what did they think?

from the beginning our suspicion has been these guys knew ahmaud arbery. they thought he was someone that they were looking for, and more and more evidence -- now we have new information that makes this point. video to show you from inside that same home. why? why be fixated on this? it doesn't matter who was in there. but it does matter. who was spotted there the day he was killed? ahmaud. but there's a lot of context about how many times people have been looking at video of that place and getting worry about it and wanting to act on it. what the mcmichaels thought, that's what we have to be able to figure out before this trial if there is one. next.

in this time of social distancing, there is one thing we can all do together: complete the 2020 census. your responses are critical to plan for the next 10 years of health care, education, and more. go online to 2020census.gov and help shape america's future.

you get way more than free shipping. you get thousands when you shop for go oyour home at wayfairgov of items you need to your door fast the way it works best for you. even the big stuff. you get a delivery experience you can always count on. you get your perfect find at a price to match on your schedule. you get free two day shipping on things that make your home feel like you! wayfair. way more than furniture. to ewhether you'reting these uncaring for your. family at home or those at work, principal is by your side. we're working hard to answer your questions. like helping you understand what the recently passed economic package can mean for you. we're more than a financial company. we're a "together we can get through anything" company. now, more than ever.

now through may 17, enjoy free access to the best shows and movies from favorites like hbo, showtime, starz and for the first time ever, hulu and peacock! watch the show

starring that guy you saw in that other thing... you know the one. or the series this kid on reddit says is "legit," punch emoji, explosion emoji. even the one with the actor people say looks just like your boss. and maybe sounds like him too. put your phones down. everyone's got a show to recommend. watch the best for free. just say "watchathon" into your voice remote, or download the xfinity stream app.

newly released videos of the property that's under construction died tide to the ahmaud arbery shooting death. martin savidge is on the case for us in glen county, georgia. here's the story. >> reporter: these latest to be released videos come from inside the home under construction in the neighborhood where ahmaud arbery was chased and killed while jogging, according to his family, february 23rd. three of these videos from from two months before the shooting, all from the same night, december 17th. the cameras appear to catch a black man wearing a t-shirt and shorts. in the last segment you can see the individual take several steps in the direction of the road and then set off on a run. the statement released friday, the attorney for the property owner says the individual depicted appears to be the same young man captured on video inside the house on february 11th. this is the february 11th video

from the staple place and cameras showing an unidentified person walking in and out of view inside the construction site. that night the visitor, who the property owner says he cannot identify, didn't just trigger cameras, but also a 911 call from none other than travis mcmichael, who reported seeing a young black male by the homesite. >> 911, they can't say address of your emergency? >> we've had a string of burglaries, i believe, in the neighborhood. and i just caught a guy running into a house being built. >> reporter: police arrive on scene and search for the person travis said he saw but find no one. attorney elizabeth gratty says the property owner and legal team have spent considerably more time viewing the clips that say they have discovered what was attracting the visitor. it now appears this young man may have been coming onto the property for water. there is a water source at the dock behind the house as well as a source near the front of the structure.

the attorney says though you can't see the water source on camera, in security video from december 17th that they have studied, the young man appears to wipe his mouth or neck and at one point what sounds like water is heard before the person heads off at a jog. additional videos obtained by cnn from the construction site show that the home was visited by a number of different unidentified individuals and people on a number of different days. the property owner says there was never any damage or theft. ahmaud arbery was seen inside the same house under construction the day he died. his presence that day triggers a chase on video and the onset that would lead to his death. as he lay dying on the ground, killed by three gunshots. he tells authorities he thought arbery was the person seen on video in the house under construction describing arbery as a suspect. in a series of break-ins.

frot prosthet the property owner never said break-in or suspect and now says the only thing taken was a drink of water. >> the legal team now for gregory mcmichael held a preference today. among other things, they said that the truth of what happened will come out, implying what has been heard so far may not be the whole truth and if it gets to trial, they will have a very different narrative to tell the court. chris? >> martin, as we both know having covered so many trials, they're going to pick their strategy. it is unusual to hear defense teams talking about the anticipation of putting on evidence. obviously the defense has no burden at a trial. the burden is on the prosecution to tell a story that makes sense to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. the defense suggests they may take on that burden. just to be clear, martin, we're

not showing these videotapes to explain that there was a crime or wasn't a crime. what do you believe to be the relevance of examining these in terms of the larger story? >> reporter: well, for one thing, the homeowner has constantly maintained he was not in communication with the mcmichaels, and he was not upset or even worried about whoever was coming on his prosecute property. he knew- happening because the he saw the video cameras but there was never theft. nobody was doing any harm that he could tell. and he knew that there were others that were coming on the property as well. what is interesting is that it's the mcmichaels who zpidepict th videos, what they see is crime. that home is the center of what they call the series of break-ins. there's only one other crime reported, and has the theft of a

handgun taken out of travis mcmichael's vehicle. everything is under construction and it appears the mcmichaels and just the mcmichaels look at what's happening there as criminal. the owner himself did not. >> here at cnn, from very early ton reports that were going around that there had been robberies in the area, you know how we knew that wasn't true, and that within the we could verify was by the mcmichaels about this gun? martin skpachlk his team. thank you for the reporting and thank you for help us continued proper context here. have a great weekend, martin. appreciate it. we're going to speak to ahmaud arbery's mother and her attorney in our next hour. why? what do they make of what is being vilified and who is being vilified here? we'll hear their perspective. first to wisconsin and the front lines of what not to be doing during a pandemic. look, we all want to reopen, but

pub crawling in the middle of a pandemic? really? next. i'm searching for info on options trading, and look, it feels like i'm just wasting time. that's why td ameritrade designed a first-of-its-kind, personalized education center. their award-winning content is

tailored to fit your investing goals and interests. and it learns with you, so as you become smarter, so do its recommendations. so it's like my streaming service. well except now, you're binge learning. for a limited time, get up to $800 when you open and fund an account. call 866-300-9417 or visit tdameritrade.com/learn. ♪

you know, whenever people don't want to deal with the substance of criticism, they always try to make it cheap, especially in politics. i say look at wisconsin, man, you got to be careful about that. oh, you hate wisconsin. who hates any state? shut up. let's just deal with what's in front of us, okay? why are we looking at wisconsin as a laboratory? because the idea of people coming out to fill up bars and restaurants when the numbers are going like this in the state worries me. i want the people there to be okay. i want to leadership to be savvy. they're all confused about the policy. so now after this court ruling throughout the state's stay-at-home order this week, that's exactly what you have. cases are still going up. the state doesn't meet the white house's own guidance on seeing the 14-day downward trend. they're not even close. look at it. so if we're only as safe as the precautions we take, which is true not just because it rhymes but it is empirically, how is

this going to play out. omar jimenez zbroins main street in waukesha county. thank you for being there. this place is the laboratory for our nation right now. >> reporter: it really is. it is right around dinnertime here on main street in waukesha. one thing you'll notice is people are enjoying dinner and drinks inside. this is new. as a result of that state supreme court order thachgt that came down striking down the stay-at-home order, leaving the responsibility, the health responsibilities in the hands of business owners and the individuals in this particular county. now, i spoke to the owner of this particular bar, and he says he actually didn't necessarily want to open. he felt that given the opportunity and with this time and economic struggles they've had, he felt like he had to. >> omar, first thing, in terms of the appetite for reopening, what are you seeing and what are you hearing about in terms of how quickly people are

responding to the opportunity? >> reporter: people are responding quickly, it's just a matter of if they're able to sort of meet that moment. so this bar in particular was able to open yesterday. again, just less than 24 hours after that order came down. we went to another restaurant that had waiters and waitresses in masks waiting on people that were outside. they only felt comfortable serving people outside and weren't quite ready to welcome people inside. there are other places that aren't quite ready yet at all because they are trying to reconfigure their places to try to make this as safe as possible. because as wild as this may seem to people looking from the outside in, a lot of these business owners are trying to care as much about their customers as they can because they feel if their customers get sick and their business places are compromised, then they can't move forward at all. so there's interest on both sides to try to watch out for themselves. but the worrying aspect for a lot of people is that there's a dynamic in this state where if you go a county over, the restrictions are different. so if you feel like the restrictions in your particular

spot are too strict, you just drive a county over, enjoy what's over there, and then you bring home with you the risks of exposure that you, again, got from that county. >> in the law they have the concept of an attractive nuisance, that when somebody has something that's unsafe but it draws attention, it creates risk even beyond their own backyard. but it will be interesting to see which method draws the most mouths and appetites. is it the full open with no restrictions, doing it outside, a bit of a mix? very interesting. when you talk to people, are you seeing this reflection of i'm a little worried, i don't know what i'm going to do, maybe i'll try it, obviously not the people in the restaurants, they've already decided. but what do you get from other people? >> reporter: from other people walking through, i was just talking to a guy who lives on this block who was out. he says he's immuneo suppressed. illegal and as they are allowed

to do enjoying their food and drinks inside some of these places, but he's basically limited to just going and grabbing food and then bringing it home. and that's not just him. there are plenty of other people who are, for example, this restaurant even, they are still doing their takeout orders where people are pulling up, running in really quickly, grabbing their food, and going back inside. and that's something that these business owners have actually encouraged, saying if you don't feel comfortable coming to these places, you don't have to. we spoke to the owner of this particular business and he told us that he did not necessarily feel like he needed to be open, but felt like the opportunity was too good to pass it up to at least try it. >> there's a lot of other businesses around that were opened up. if i would have been say the lone wolf in this, i wouldn't have done it,under? but i think we're all trying to exercise as much caution and basically keep our livelihood. >> tough balance. >> reporter: there's a major question when we talk about --

it is a tough balance, that's right. i mean, people are balancing their health responsibilities and their economic and fighting for their families' economic survival. as far as moving forward where we could potentially see any sort of statewide order again, that could only come from the democratic governor, tony evers working with the republican-led legislature to put into place. it is not likely we'll see anything anytime soon. >> especially when this has been politically weaponized now. that state, wisconsin, is different than a lot of other states. they have written into their law that the governor can't just do this on this issue. it had to be from the state agency, which is their health and human services agency, anden the court rejected that. so they're caught in a tight little loop right now. we'll see what happens. doesn't look like the legislature is going to act anytime soon. omar jimenez, thank you. 87,000 people plus dead from

the virus as of this hour. the death toll is climbing. the president, again, pointed east. >> this came from china. it should have been stopped in china. >> it should have been stopped right at the source. but it wasn't. >> look, everybody says don't look backwards. everybody says it's not worth blaming. this is politics, okay? he wants to blame china because it gives him an excuse when people say, well, why did this happen to us? there's a lot of blame to go around. let's be honest. nobody knows exactly what happened here. was it china? was it escaping from a lab? did it move from china to europe and then come let's get some insight on what the right questions are. alex marquardt follows the facts. >> reporter: the pandemic that has now blanketed the globe is

universally expected to have exploded out of the china city of wuhan. what is not agreed on is the exact origin, now a less scientific question than a political one. >> i think they made a horrible mistake and they don't want to admit it. >> reporter: the trump administration has been stecppig up the blame on the chinese regi regime, saying the sars-cov-2 was not leaked from a wet market but from a governmental lab. >> this most likely came from the china department of serology. i'd like to see something else that points to that. >> reporter: according to cables by the "washington post," the state department warned in 2018 about safety and management issues. the body of evidence is circumstantial. u.s. intelligence agencies say there is no smoking gun, but what they do believe is that the virus was not manmade and was not released purposefully.

the trump administration isn't ruling out that the virus came from elsewhere, but it has been much more aggressive than other countries in pushing the lab theory, which foreign intelligence partners dispute. >> there's nothing that we have that would indicate that was the likely source. you can't rule anything out in these environments. >> reporter: that lack of certainty has allowed the trump administration to use the lab theory to be more critical of the chinese government. >> it makes a more compelling case for chinese communist party malfeasance and cover-ups and foising th i foisting this on the globe. >> reporter: the world health organization, which has been blasted by the trump administration, says the lab theory is speculative. >> the markets must have played a role somehow either for the source of the outbreak or a city where the virus was introduced.

>> reporter: the virus could have been introduced at the lab or the market which are eight miles apart. at some point last year the virus moved in nature from an animal to humans. dr. anthony fauci told "national geographic" everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicate that this virus evolved in nature and then jumped species. that does not discount the lab theory. the trump administration and republican allies in congress argue that the delay of china's warnings and its alleged stockpiling of protective equipment bolster the possibility that the virus escaped the government lab since they likely would have known sooner. still, if it leaked from the lab and the government knew, former cia china analyst chris johnson says u.s. intelligence likely would have picked up on it. >> the administration is trying to make this case very hard. they would make it if they had it. it hasn't been leaked, so they probably don't. >> reporter: so one big thing that the trump administration

can point to in arguing that this virus escaped from a lab through workers is, in fact, chris, it has happened before. not in wuhan specifically, but in china. in beijing in 2004, two lab workers were infected with sars, and a year prior in singapore, which of course is not in china, a student was also infected with sars through accidental contamination. for now, throughout the u.s., everyone agrees that it's highly unlikely this virus came from the lab. for its part, china has called the notion absurd and says that secretary of state mike pompeo is insane for pushing it. chris? >> insane. that's a whole new category of illness. alex, thank you very much. eventually the facts will come out. appreciate the reporting. thank you for following the threat along with where we are at this moment in time. here's the reality. no matter where it came from, what we know for sure is it makes us sick. it makes us sick everywhere. it makes us sick

psychologically, emotionally, physically. why did i say physically last? what were those other two? that takes us to tonight's american. you know him, kenneth. he is my brother-in-law. he has been for many, many years and he's also an advocate for social justice, including mental health. today he launched a mental health coalition. he believes that the only way we can get out of this situation is to collect a big group of advocacy organizations and business leaders working together, that we blow through the stigma because there are too many people you want to listen to saying stop being silent. as part of this, they've also launched a social media challenge to encourage people to talk about how you feel. really? you know, oh, i got a fever. oh, it's my stomach. oh, it's my heart, it's my ank

zi -- anxiety, it's my emotion. kendall jenner helped kick it off. >> i'm kind of off and on, but i want you to join me in this challenge. let me know how you feel and know that you're not alone. >> she's right, the idea is to tell you how you really feel and invite others to join us. kenneth cole invited me. here's my piece on instagram. >> i'm worried and trying to be my best, trying to be my best at home, trying to be my best for you, trying to be the best for myself. it's all real. it's just as real as that fever i had. so how do you really feel? think about it, because it matters. and even though this shouldn't be a challenge, i'll make it one because they're such great minds and people out there who i hope will spread the same message. so i'm going to call out my two betters, rachel maddow on msnbc,

the professor, and sean hannity on fox news. >> calling them out is the wrong phrase. i'm hoping they'll join in. they're good people. i hope they add to the cause. they certainly mean a lot to me in my life. and you can go to the mentalhealthcoalition.org to learn more. we'll be right back. ♪ (announcer) reliability is everything. so, if your network's down, you're down. verizon knows your customers need to reach you seamlessly. your team needs to work from different places across many devices. plus, you want the security trusted by some of the largest companies in the world. and that's why you trust us. the most reliable network in america.

because i trust their quality they were the first to have a vitamin verified by usp... ...an independent organization that sets strict quality and purity standards nature made, the #1 pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand you ever wish you weren't a motaur? sure. sometimes i wish i had legs like you. yeah, like a regular person.

no. still half bike/half man, just the opposite. oh, so the legs on the bottom and motorcycle on the top? yeah. yeah, i could see that. for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

yeah, i could see that. this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they never quit.

hey, everybody, i'm chris cuomo. this is actually the second hour for us tonight because we're subbing in for